Vehicular seat structures involving a passenger seat next to the driver's seat and rear seats are known that are capable of being moved to enlarge the space of the cargo compartment by forwardly bringing down the seat back of the seat structure. An example of such a seat structure is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP-A-3-121939.
This seat structure is shown in FIG. 14 and is adapted to be mounted on a vehicle having a lower floor portion 70A and an upper floor portion 70B disposed rearwardly of the lower floor portion 70A in a floor 70 of a vehicle. A seat structure 72 is arranged on the upper floor portion 70B and includes a foldably supported seat back 72A and a seat cushion 72B. Further, a guide rail 74 extending in the forward and rearward direction is arranged on the upper floor portion 70B. A front end side of the guide rail 74 is bent downwardly and extends to the vicinity of the upper face of the rear portion of the lower floor portion 70A. A slider 76 moves along the guide rail 74 and is attached at the rear end portion of the seat cushion 72B of the seat 72. A support leg 78 for supporting the seat 72 during forward movement of the seat 72 is interposed between the seat cushion 72B and the rear portion of the lower floor portion 70A. The position of the seat 72 can be changed to either a position for use on the upper floor portion 70B (the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 14) or a stored position on the lower floor portion 70A (the position indicated by the two-dotted chain line in FIG. 14). Meanwhile, a lock mechanism (not illustrated) is installed between the seat 72 and the guide rail 74 for locking the forward and rearward movement of the seat 72 at least at the position for use on the upper floor portion 70B and the position for storage on the lower floor portion 70A.
In this vehicular seat structure, when the seat 72 is disposed at the position for storage (the position indicated by the two-dotted chain line in FIG. 14) on the lower floor portion 70A, the seat back 72A is brought down forwardly onto the seat cushion 72B and the space or size of the cargo compartment 80 formed on the rear side of the seat back 72A is enlarged. However, a large gap 82 is produced between the floor portion 80A of the enlarged cargo compartment 80 and the seat back 72A of the seat 72 and this tends to reduce the actual performance of use.
In light of the foregoing, a need exists for a vehicular seat structure that is capable of reducing the gap between the floor portion of the cargo compartment and the seat back when the cargo compartment is enlarged by forwardly bringing down the seat back.